These recipes from “The Twisted Soul Cookbook: Modern Soul Food With Global Flavors” by Deborah VanTrece (Rizzoli New York, $35) offer a glimpse into her personal mix of traditional and internationally inspired flavors.Shop Barnes & Noble The Elements of Pizza - Unlocking the Secrets to World-Class Pies at Home by Ken Forkish online at. That will be the role that I’ll take on a little bit more now - to push the agenda of more women, and more African Americans and people of color, and more restaurants that are owned by people who look like me.” “Because I have been vocal and outspoken about the inequities in the industry, I want to continue to be a bit of an activist, and be a huge mentor to those who need it.

And I want to keep others from screwing it up as bad as I did. I had my family, and their common sense, more than anything. “Turning over the kitchen, that was a big deal for me,” she admitted. With that move, she’s able to take on a bigger role as a mentor, working with several organizations and companies to advocate for minorities in the restaurant business. Recently, VanTrece took on a new role as creative director at Twisted Soul, while promoting chef de cuisine Robert Butts to executive chef.

“I wanted to elevate the soul food I grew up with, and marry it with all of the travel, and all of the history, and all of the stories,” she said.

Ultimately, VanTrece said she “wanted to touch people’s hearts” with her cookbook. “In the broader term, soul food goes across all cultures, and we all have something that touches our soul, and some food that touches our soul,” she said. “So the knowledge was there all the time, not just in professional chefs, like an Edna Lewis, but all of the black women who were in white women’s kitchens preparing the meals for their families.”įor a time, VanTrece wondered if she had a cookbook in her, but finally decided there were plenty of stories to tell, and recipes to share. “They were utilizing fresh products, and the best things, and they understood seasonal vegetables, and what to do with them,” she said. VanTrece found inspiration in women such as Edna Lewis and Leah Chase, and other chefs who honored African American food with their recipes. And that’s what I decided I wanted to do.” “No one was taking the soul food that I grew up with and figuring out ways to present it, where it became what I called art on the plate. “That was something that really spoke to me. “I was seeing food that I grew up with that he had taken and elevated into these beautiful fine dining dishes, with all kinds of colors, and different ingredients,” she recalled. Studying Charlie Trotter’s cookbooks, she made the connection between soul food and Southern food, and the food her grandmother and great-grandmother were cooking. In “The Twisted Soul Cookbook,” VanTrece writes about a series of eureka moments, when she “became determined to give soul food a higher profile in her cooking and catering.”

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